


Shaken and Stirred

by helsinkibaby



Series: Partners [4]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Het, Partners to Lovers, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 17:48:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5595271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Caitlin and Joe have to go undercover, Joe comes to a realisation about his feelings for his partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shaken and Stirred

 

Joe stands in STAR Labs and pulls at the collar of his tuxedo shirt, glaring at Barry when he swats at his hand. "Leave it," Barry warns him, a grin on his face and Joe has a sudden flashback to Barry's high school prom when the roles had been reversed. 

"You're enjoying this a little too much," Joe tells him and Barry actually chuckles. Which makes Joe glare some more, which makes Barry chuckle again. "I carry a gun, you know."

Barry gives him a look. "I'd like to see you try to hit me." Which is a good point, even if Joe would never try it out. Although, he's got to be honest, there are times when he's tempted. 

"C'mon, Joe." Cisco's lollipop emerges from his lips with an audible "pop" and there's a grin on his face that's the match of Barry's. "Let's look on the bright side... how often do you get to go all James Bond on the city's dime?"

Joe has the urge to roll his eyes and he does not fight it. "I could live without the monkey suit, Cisco," he says and Barry shrugs, finding another bright side. 

"Hey, it could have been worse, you could have been a waiter." 

"Besides, it gives us the chance to be on the inside." Cisco holds up a pair of sparkling earrings, his smile almost as bright as they are. "I've impressed myself with these babies, you have no idea how hard it was to shrink the microphone and camera to fit inside..." 

He stops talking, his jaw hanging open and Joe takes the opening. "They're not really me, Cisco," he quips, and he's expecting Cisco to remark on how it was even harder to get the equipment into his cuff links. Then he realises that Cisco's eyes are glassy, that Barry's are not far behind and that whatever has stopped the two of them dead in their tracks is whatever it is that they're looking at over his shoulder. 

So he turns.

And stops dead in his tracks. 

Because standing in STAR Labs, ready to pick up those blingy earrings from Cisco, talking to Patty and Doctor Wells, is his partner. 

Except he's never seen Detective Caitlin Snow look like this before. 

On the job, she wears practical pant suits, sensible heels that allow her to pound the street, chase after a suspect. Her hair is sometimes left loose, more often than not pulled back in a ponytail, and her make-up is understated enough to be barely visible. 

Tonight she looks like another person completely. 

Her hair is pulled back from her face, pieces of it pinned up, the rest falling in loose curls down her back. Her eyes are huge and luminous, her lips a deep wine colour, pulled back in a smile as she twirls around and laughs at whatever it is that Patty has said to her. As for the dress... Joe swallows hard. It's some sort of navy blue lacy affair, sleeveless and, as far as he can make out, pretty much backless too. The shirt is short, well above her knees, and she's wearing a pair of heels that she'll never be able to run in - he's actually surprised that she can walk in them. 

"Oh. My. God." Cisco's voice brings him back to reality. 

"Relax." Barry's speed apparently isn't solely related to movement because although he sounds surprised, he's not nearly as breathless as Cisco. "It's just Caitlin."

Cisco was not taking his friend's advice. "That is not just Caitlin. Look at her." He's rapt, reverent and though Joe knows he's been nursing a crush on Caitlin since the first time he met her, it sounds like he's suddenly fallen even deeper. "Where the heck is her gun?"

"Cisco!" Barry laughs more in shock than anything and Joe's eyes go back to his partner, trace up and down the length of her body and he swallows again as he takes Cisco's point. The dress is clinging to Caitlin's every curve so if she is hiding a gun somewhere, it has to be one of those tiny ones that he's seen in the armoury, the ones that the guys usually laugh about as being no good to anyone, and the only place where she could have it strapped would be on the inside of her thigh...

He swallows hard again, pushes the thought out of his mind. 

Because this is Caitlin. This is his partner. The person that he works side by side with every day, the one he trusts to have his back, the one who trusts him to have hers. It had taken long enough to get to that point; he doesn't need Cisco and Barry having him thinking of her as anything other than that. 

"OK." Cisco takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly. "I'm ready." He glances at Joe, then, ever irrepressible,  tries one more thing. "Sure you don't need me to come along? I have a tux..."

"Go." It's Barry who claps him on the shoulder, shoves him into the main cortex, shakes his head fondly as Cisco starts babbling a mile a minute about microphones and receivers and teeny tiny cameras and how he hopes the jewellery goes with her dress. Barry follows him out with Joe, giving Caitlin a knowing smile. "Looking good, Detective," he says when Cisco pauses for breath and Caitlin grins at him, her eyes dancing with amusement. 

"Thank you." She looks him up and down, takes in his STAR Labs sweatshirt and jeans. "They couldn't get your name on the list, huh?"

Barry shrugs. "Not much call for a CSI before the crime's been committed. Besides, I'm hoping that I won't be needed at all if you and James Bond over here can do your thing." 

Caitlin narrows her eyes but she's still smiling. "Call me Moneypenny once and I'll freeze you." 

Cisco laughs, Barry chuckles and Joe grits his teeth at the surge of irritation that rises up in his throat. Then he checks himself - Caitlin and Barry talk to each other like this all the time and it never usually bothers him. Must be the tux, he thinks, and he pulls at his neck again, trying to loosen it. As if the movement draws Caitlin's attention, she looks over at him and he doesn't miss how her eyes travel up and down his body, doesn't miss the smile that tugs at her lips. 

"I must say, you two don't scrub up too badly." Patty's voice is bright and chipper and Joe almost expects her to pull out a camera and start snapping pictures. Caitlin's smile widens, like she can read his thoughts, and he notices that the colour on her cheeks is higher than usual. He's grown so used to her pale skin that to see her with flushed cheeks is unusual and he supposes that Cisco's implant must he doing its thing and he just hasn't noticed it before now. 

"As long as I don't ice anyone by accident," she says, biting her lip, her fingers touching the site on her arm where Cisco had injected the implant. She does that sometimes, a nervous habit, usually covered by her suit jacket. Today, the contrast of her manicured fingernails - another first - against her skin makes something swim in Joe's stomach, something he chooses to name as nerves in case that's what happens. How they'd explain that to Singh he has no idea. 

"With my tech?" Cisco's hand goes to his chest, all wounded mortification and it brings a smile to Caitlin's lips. The smile only gets wider as Cisco's jaw drops and he points to first Joe. "Bond." Then Caitlin. "Mon- female Bond." He points to himself. "Q!" 

Caitlin laughs aloud, a sound Joe doesn't hear too often on the job. Even if he does, it never sounds like this, amused and delighted and just happy. Her whole face lights up as she smiles at Cisco and that emotion, the one he'd called nerves, twists in Joe's stomach again. 

"Let's get going, partner," he says, checking his watch and realising the time. Caitlin blinks as he speaks, eyebrows drawing down in a slight frown, the tilt of her head asking a question that he ignores as they listen to Cisco explaining the technology. 

*

As weird and strange as he had acted in STAR Labs, by the time the night is over, Joe has to admit that that was actually the best behaviour he'd displayed.  Things begin to go south when he arrives at the hotel ballroom, his eyes instantly landing on Caitlin, and a quick sweep of the room has him realising that his aren't  the only eyes lingering there. Grabbing a glass of champagne - strictly for show, in the interests of blending in - he begins to circulate, cataloguing who was there, who's talking to whom, looking out for any loners, anyone who doesn't  belong. 

A couple of circuits later he finds himself beside Caitlin and Eddie, whose face lights up when he sees Joe. Joe finds himself hoping that the younger man isn't going to mention anything about the two of them in tuxedos as some kind of future portent; decking his daughter's boyfriend might just blow his cover. Eddie either hasn't made the connection or is distracted because all he says is, "I think we should petition Singh to make the next department night out a black tie affair."

Joe resists the urge to roll his eyes but it's hard when Caitlin gives one of those unfamiliar laughs. "I'm not sure the department could handle this much pretty," she says and Eddie raises one eyebrow. 

"Speak for yourself," he says and she arches an eyebrow as she sashays away for a reconnoitre of her own, an extra sway in her hips that wouldn't normally be there. 

"I was."

Eddie laughs as he watches her go, a bit too lingering for Joe's taste, given his relationship with Iris. He makes it worse when he says, "Who knew Caitlin could look so amazing?" 

Joe presses his lips into a thin line. "Who indeed?" Changing the subject, he talks to Eddie about who's in the room and moments later when he finds Caitlin, there's the finest of frowns on her face. 

"What's wrong?" she asks, eyes darting around the room. "You look like you're about to explode." 

"No." Joe gives a quick shake of his head and when she narrows her eyes, he hears himself say, "Though if you could not flirt with my daughter's boyfriend in front of me? That would be great." 

Caitlin's jaw drops as her eyes widen and she recoils like he's slapped her. That only lasts for a second, maybe two, before two spots of red appear on her cheeks and she glares at him. "I have a job to do," she tells him crisply. "And you can go to hell." 

She avoids him for the rest of the night which is ridiculously uneventful, only coming to him when they're the last two in the room. She stands in front of him and pulls her earrings out, holding them out to him. "You can give them to Cisco," she says. "I'm going home." 

Joe tilts his head. "You don't want to give them back yourself?" 

He knows it's the wrong thing to say when her eyes narrow and, implant or no, he feels the temperature in the room drop. "I'm sure you'll find something to tell them," she replies, ice dripping from her tone. "Whether it's true or not." With that, she spins on her heel and stalks off, moving quicker than he would have thought possible and once again, he's frozen in his tracks, unable to move. 

He makes his way to his car, drives to STAR Labs and returns the tech, intending to go straight home. Instead, he finds himself parked outside Caitlin's apartment building and he makes himself go in before he changes his mind. The doorman recognises him, lets him go straight up and he raps smartly on the door, counting the seconds until she answers. 

When she does, she only opens the door halfway, leans against it heavily. She's barefoot and she's taken her hair down so it falls around her shoulders in messy ringlets. His fingers itch with sudden desire and he realises, somewhat belatedly, why he was acting the way he was tonight, is able to finally correctly name the emotion he'd been feeling.  

Jealousy, pure and simple. 

Because even though he knew she was his partner, even though he knew the sight of her shouldn't affect him the way that it had, it seems his heart hadn't caught up with his brain. 

"What are you doing here?" Her voice is heavy, her earlier anger gone. She just looks tired, confused and he can't blame her. 

He gets straight to the point. "I owe you an apology."

"Damn right." She all but snorts the two words at him and he looks around, shifts on his feet. 

"Look, can I come in? I don't want to do this on your doorstep..."

"Yes, because heaven forbid you should be made to feel uncomfortable." Tart as her words are, she still steps back to allow him in, and if the door closes a little bit more loudly than it should, he chooses to ignore it. 

Instead he takes a deep breath, turns to face her. "I'm sorry," he says, jamming his hands into his trouser pockets, shrugging his shoulders for good measure. "What I said... I was way out of line."

"Yes, you were." She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at him. The room temperature, however, stays constant and her eyes stay brown, which he takes as a good sign. "Eddie is my friend, Joe... we were partners for nearly two years. I just don't know why you would say... I mean, where does that even..." She's spluttering by now, obviously completely mystified and not a little bit indignant.  She presses her lips together tightly,closes her eyes as she takes a deep breath, clearly fighting for control, and her eyes fly open at Joe's next words. 

"From you." 

He says them quietly, but the effect is that of a bomb being dropped in the apartment. The atmosphere immediately changes, becomes more charged and Joe takes a step towards her as her jaw drops. 

"Excuse me?" 

Her confusion stops him in his tracks and he realises that whatever he was thinking, whatever he was feeling, he mustn't have given anything away. She doesn't have any clue what he's about to say and if he says it, she'll have every right to haul off and slug him, and that's if he's lucky. At the very least, she'll have cause to go to Singh and demand a new partner; then again, the way they were tonight, she might want to do that anyway. 

"Joe?" She takes a step towards him, curious, almost hesitant. "What do you mean?" 

Joe joins his hands together like he's praying, raises them to his face and drags them down over his lips. "Jesus, you're going to make me say it." 

He was talking more to himself than her but she responds anyway, in a voice that's pitched slightly higher than normal. "Say what?"

"Caitlin..." Her name slips unbidden from his lips, soft as a whisper, but she hears it, reels back in shock. 

"You never call me-"

"Yeah." The word is another sigh, an admission of a habit he's got into at work, the reason for which he's only beginning to appreciate. Because he's thinking back over the last few months since they discovered each other's secrets, thinking of the times they've spent together and the friendship they've built up and he's wondering why he never consciously noticed before what he finally realised tonight. "I work with you every day. You're my partner. That's all you are, all you've ever been." He's talking slowly, quietly, saying the words as they occur to him because this is important. It's important that she understands, even if he's not entirely sure he understands it himself.  "Then you walked into STAR Labs tonight, dressed like that..." His eyes roam up and down her body and a visible shiver runs down her spine. He can see goose flesh rising on her arms and he takes another step closer to her. "And suddenly I didn't see my partner any more. I saw a woman." He's right in front of her now, staring down at her dark eyes and her serious expression and his heart is hammering in his chest, blood roaring in his veins. "A beautiful woman. And I don't know what to do with that." 

"Who says..." Her voice is shaking, falters altogether as he reaches out and places his hand on her cheek. He feels her swallow hard,  but she manages to whisper, "Who says you have to do anything?" 

"No-one." He's whispering too and his second hand comes up to mirror the first. Her skin is warm to the touch, soft as he sweeps his thumb up and down. Her eyelids flutter shut and it's a battle for her to force them open but when she does, her pupils are dilated, her breath shallow and rapid. Slowly, they move at the same time, leaning in to one another, their lips meeting in a gentle kiss.

Gentle it may be but it's enough to cause a jolt of sensation down Joe's spine and maybe the same for Caitlin because she wobbles on her toes, lays her hands on his chest to steady herself. Which is when he deepens the kiss, one hand sliding from her cheek to her neck, his tongue sliding along the seam of her lips and she sighs as she opens her mouth to him, stepping closer so that she can press her body closer to his. His other hand slides down her shoulder, down her arm, lands on her hip and around to the small of her back where he presses her body against his, smiling at the little gasp she lets out. 

He kisses her until they're both gasping for breath and when he pulls away, he rests his forehead against hers, stares into her  eyes.  In them, he can see the mirror of everything that he's feeling - the arousal pooled low in his belly, the heat and desire coursing through his veins, the knowledge that they absolutely should not have done that. She bites her lip, like she's suddenly unsure of herself and the gesture is so familiar, the circumstances so strange, that all he can do is smile. Lifting his hand to her chin, he pulls at her lower lip, freeing it and running his thumb along it, shivering as she places a soft kiss there.  His hands move to her shoulders then, squeeze gently and she looks down, steps forward and lets her head fall to his shoulder. 

His arms go around her waist and he sighs as he kisses the top of her head. She sighs too, straightens up and lays her hands on his chest, her fingers playing with the lapels of his tuxedo jacket. "I know," she tells him quietly, but she doesn't - can't? - look up at him. "We shouldn't have done that." 

"No, we shouldn't." He can't disagree with that, but that's only half the story as far as he's concerned and if that kiss is anything to go by, he knows he's not alone. "But, Caitlin..." He puts a finger under her chin, tilts her head up so that she's looking into his eyes and her breath catches at what she sees there. In her eyes, he sees want and desire and need, combined with so much uncertainty, so much conflict that it actually hurts to look at her. "I want to." He drops his head, lets his forehead rest against hers again. "My God, I want to." 

There's a noise that's almost a sob and then her arms are around his neck, her lips on his. This time there's nothing gentle about it, nothing gentle about the way that he pulls her to him, hands sliding down the smooth skin of her back, dipping under the material of the dress. He hears a tiny mewl from the back of her throat and he's vaguely aware that she's moving them backwards even as her hands are working their way under his tuxedo jacket, pushing it off him. Once that's gone, her nimble fingers find the buttons of his shirt and she throws it on the floor beside her bed, moving his hand to the zipper at the side of her dress. He takes the hint, slides it down slowly, a low groan escaping him as it became clear to him exactly what she wasn't wearing underneath. 

He dimly registers her smile before she pushes him onto the bed, before he pulls her down on top of him and she straddles him all in one easy movement.

And then? 

Then there is no talking, no thinking, only touch and movement and sensation and pleasure. 

He doesn't know how much later it is when he finally comes back to himself. He just knows that Caitlin is lying in his arms, her head pillowed on his shoulder, her fingers tracing tiny circles on his chest. His own fingers are tracing an equally lazy path up and down her back and for once, he's taking the goose flesh on her skin as a good thing. 

"You OK?" he asks her and she chuckles, soft and low, a combination that he instantly decides he wants to hear more of. 

"Pretty amazing," she says bluntly and he grins down at her, liking the sound of that too. Crimson heat floods her cheeks and she closes her eyes, shakes her head. "I didn't mean it like that," she says. Then she tilts her head, opens her eyes. "OK, maybe I did." Her eyes narrow ever so slightly. "Are you... I mean, was it..." Her cheeks darken still further and he can't help himself, he rolls her onto her back, covers her body with his, her lips with his and proceeds to answer her in a way that renders words superfluous. 

She smiles when he pulls away, leans into his touch as he brushes a lock of hair back behind her ear. "Guess you were more like James Bond than you thought," she teases, wrapping a leg around his hip, and he wishes, not for the first time in his life, nor even tonight, that he was twenty years younger. 

"What about you?" he parries. "Getting me shaken and stirred..." He shifts slightly, works one of his hands between them and she gasps, arches against him. Her fingernails score crescents into his skin as he proceeds to return the favour,  leaving her thoroughly shaken and stirred, crying out his name as she shatters around his fingers. 

His lips find hers, trading long, slow kisses as she comes down from her high, and she wraps herself around him, holds him tight. "Will you stay?" she whispers and it's the first time he's heard her sound so vulnerable. 

His answer is of the non verbal variety but he doesn't have to think twice about it. 

Tomorrow, there will be time enough for thinking. Tonight, he's happy to just have this. 


End file.
